No sunrise but a great snake

It’s a good idea when you are taking photos to be prepared for the unexpected.

One morning last December I decided to get some sunrise shots at the Mackay harbour.

Now, one of the joys of sunrise photography is getting out of bed at 4:30 am and if you're like me that's about 4 hrs after you went to bed. When I got to the location I found it’s was a pretty crappy sunrise. It had potential but there was too much cloud in the wrong place and the whole sunrise was rather uninspiring.

So, I packed up my gear and was about to head home when I decided to call in to the Melaleuca Forest about 3 kms from my house.

When the forest has water about you get a lot of birds and there’s always some interesting insect life, butterflies and so on. I grabbed my camera and hadn't gone more than 10 metres when I spotted a beautiful 3 metre carpet python. There he was, in all his glory, stretched out right across the pathway just lying there like a big ... snake?

I walked up to him (or her) lying there doing nothing on the snake equivalent of a couch - it had to be a bloke, right ladies? And he didn’t move a scale. I dropped my gear and got ready and started snapping away.

It was about 6:30 am and quite cool - well, cool for our part of the world anyway, it was probably about 23ºC. I was probably there for a good 5 minutes before he even stirred and eventually lifted his gorgeous diamond shaped head off the arm of the lounge (ok, the edge of the walkway) and turned to look at me.

Having not yet warmed up he was pretty sluggish so I wasn't worried about him having a go at me, yet.

He looked at me and poked his beautiful purple tongue at me. I missed that shot, so waited for the next opportunity and waited, and waited. I moved a little and he poked his tongue at me again, but as I was moving I couldn't get a clear shot.

After a short while I realised that he only poked his lovely bifurcated purple tongue when I moved. So, armed with this knowledge, I stomped my foot to make him poke his tongue out. Sure enough, he did, but have you ever tried to take a photo with a long (200mm) lens while stomping your foot? It’s bloody hard!

Anyway, with a bit of practice and a couple of hundred shots, I ended up getting some pretty good shots of this little beauty, tongue and all.

I annoyed him for about 20 minutes, but he started getting a little more active. Now, in my tiny little mind, I started to think, “If he actually has a strike at me, what a great shot that would be”. A crazy thought only a committed photographer would understand.

He started getting a little more active and curling his neck a little more (do snakes have necks?) and started to slowly moving towards me.

At this stage, my senses began to clear a little and I thought, yes, it would be a great shot but could also be rather painful if he missed the lens and hit me so that was when discretion got the better part of valour and I decided to leave this sleeping beauty to wake up all by himself.

3
Comments

frances swan

great shot and great story . loved both . not a snake lover though :)

Donna Bloedow

Beautiful photo. So good to read about a positive snake story. Thank you for leaving this beautiful snake alone after you had your photos.
I have a snake almost 3 metres long and you are welcome to photograph her any time you like.